New report reveals America’s “concentration crisis”; antitrust enforcers and regulators in Europe are going after Amazon, Facebook and Google; Facebook’s ongoing Soros debacle; and why is US life expectancy in decline?
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Antitrust in a Changing Economy and Changing Economics
Jason Furman, former chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers: We will likely need to update our competition policies to promote competition if we want to have more investment, more dynamism, more productivity growth, less inequality and lower prices for consumers.
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If You Don’t Think Today’s Tech Giants Are Vicious, Just Ask Venture Capitalists
Silicon Valley today resembles the deepest part of the jungle known as the triple canopy, where tall trees block out all the light and nothing can grow on the ground. Who knows how many good businesses are not funded because of the fear of the tech monopolies?
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Inside Tech’s “Kill Zone”: How to Deal With the Threat to Edge Innovation Posed by Multi-Sided Platforms
Dominant tech platforms can exploit the vast amounts of user data available only to them to squash startups and independent providers. Hal Singer offers ways to protect against this threat to edge innovation.
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Subsidies to Amazon Are Uneconomical, Un-American, and Unconstitutional
Corporate subsidies are a negative-sum game. They foster crony capitalism, hurt productivity growth and inflict great harm on product market competition.
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Editors’ Briefing: This Week in Political Economy (November 4-11)
The costliest midterm election in US history ends with a victory for Democrats—and for money in politics in general; Amazon and Apple crack down on third-party refurbishers, raising antitrust concerns; and was Amazon’s HQ2 stunt really just a “con”?
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Editors’ Briefing: This Week in Political Economy (October 27-November 4)
Facebook is still open to manipulation by malicious political actors; the dialysis industry has spent over $100 million to fight a ballot measure that seeks to regulate it; AT&T does everything it promised not to do in its defense of the Time Warner merger; and can tech workers help police their own employers?
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Brazil’s Election Is Yet Another Indication That Facebook Is Too Big to Manage
Facebook’s failure to curb the massive disinformation campaign that preceded Jair Bolsonaro’s election victory shows that it is unable to control the dangerous consequences of its own dominance.
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Digital Platforms’ Targeting Tools Are Opaque and Potentially Dangerous
A lawsuit claims that Facebook inflated video metrics to lure advertisers. Facebook denies, but it’s worth noting that it would be much easier for Facebook to defraud advertisers than for any of its predecessors in traditional media.
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Editors’ Briefing: This Week in Political Economy (October 20-27)
Corporate executives warm up to Brazil’s far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro; the US is developing into a “plutocracy,” says former Fed chairman; Tim Cook blasts Silicon Valley’s “data-industrial complex”; and what is McKinsey’s relationship with Saudi Arabia?
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Editors’ Briefing: This Week in Political Economy (October 14-20)
Facebook’s WhatsApp finds itself at the center of Brazil’s political upheaval; the EU is pushing ahead with its planned tax on tech platforms; Trump’s replacement for NAFTA entrenches tech monopolies; and why does Uber love economists?
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Editors’ Briefing: This Week in Political Economy (October 7-14)
The DOJ approves the CVS-Aetna merger, radically altering the landscape of US health care; Sheldon Adelson pumps millions into GOP races; Silicon Valley’s Saudi Arabia problem; and who has the right to compete in America?
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